“TIFF-FX” is a proposed standard for the rendering and retention of image data. It is useful for transmission of facsimile-format documents over the Internet, and encompasses other standards such as JPEG, JBIG, and color fax standards. One aspect of TIFF-FX is that there is a special problem with rendering multi-page documents, and/or page images having multiple components (such as combinations of text, contone images, and line art) in a coherent format.
In TIFF-FX, different types of image components (text, line art, contone) can be compressed in various ways, such as JBIG, JPEG, or fax formats. The different compression arrangements or schemes are called “profiles.” Examples of profiles are:    S=b/w, simple compression algorithm    F=b/w, richer compression algorithm    J=b/w, JBIG compression    C=color JPEG compression    L=color JBIG compressionM=MRC=“mixed raster content”=in each page, different components are compressed in different ways. Different components of a page image are organized as “mask,” “upper,” and “lower,” which are ultimately combined to create a single, multi-component page image. Typically, the “mask” is text, compressed in binary, JBIG, or the fax compressions Modified Huffman, Modified Read, or Modified Modified Read. The “lower” portion is typically contone images compressed in JPEG. The “upper” portion is typically line art compressed in GZIP.
The present invention is directed to a system for organizing image data in a heterogeneous form, such as including both color and monochrome images, or images compressed according to different schemes, so that a TIFF-FX writer can automatically organize the data to create a single multi-page document.